Garden Design A-Z

As with every industry, garden design has a plethora of specialist words. Here’s an A-Z run down of some you may or may not have heard.

Annuals Annual plants germinate, flower, set seed and die in one year. They aren’t used heavily by garden designers because they don’t provide a long lasting presence in planted borders, but those that freely self-seed can be useful to include in meadow areas or in naturalistic borders where they will pop up in different spots each year.

Nigella damascena - an annual

Balance One of the principles of garden design. In this context it means a balance between the volume, weight or size of different garden elements – this doesn’t necessarily mean everything must be symmetrical as balance can still be achieved in an asymmetrical design.

CAD Computer aided design – software used by garden designers to create digital plans and graphics. Many designers use a mix of hand drawn concepts and then more accurate and detailed plans made using CAD programmes like Sketchup and Vectorworks.

Drought-tolerant Used to describe plants that are better suited to hot, dry summers. As our climate changes designers are working with more drought-tolerant plants to make our planting schemes more resilient. This is complicated by the fact that we are still experiencing wet winters, and many well-known drought-tolerant plants (often from the Mediterranean) don’t like having wet feet in the winter! Time will tell what plants will be able to work with both hot summers and wet winters.

Espalier This is a way of training fruit trees, normally apples and pears, which gives a central stem with tiers of horizontal branches to encourage fruiting. In a design context, a row of espaliers can be used for screening.

Focal point A point of focus in the garden – this can be a particularly lovely tree or plant, a statue, a water feature or anything else attractive that draws the eye. Having a focal point at the end of a path can help draw people through the garden so help steer how people experience the space.  

Gabion These are large baskets formed from steel wires and then filled with heavy solid materials. Generally they are filled with rocks, especially when used in public areas, but for a more interesting gabion in the garden then can be filled with all manner of recycled materials from bricks to glass bottles.

Hard landscaping Anything in the garden that uses hard materials, including paths, patios, steps, water features and fences.  

IP Ingress Protection rating, used to describe how protected a device is against water and dust. In a garden design context will mainly be used in relation to garden lights. The highest protected rating is IP68 (6 = dust tight, 8 = can be submersed below 1m of water).

Jungle planting Planting a jungle or tropical inspired garden will involve using lots of lush planting with large leaves and bright coloured flowers. Plants that thrive in the UK but give a tropical feel include Fatsia japonica and Crocosmias.

Knot garden A popular garden element from the time of the Tudors. A formal, symmetrical pattern of low hedges, often box, surrounding small planting areas filled with aromatic plants.

Loam The ‘ideal’ soil, which is a mix of clay, sand and silt, meaning that it will be well-drained and easy to work. Don’t worry if this doesn’t sound like your soil – there are plants suited to all different soil types!

Mixed border This is a planting border with a mixture of trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals and bulbs.

Natural swimming pool These are chemical free swimming ponds which are becoming more popular in the UK. ‘Regeneration zones’ of aquatic plants are used to filter the water.

Obelisk A metal or wood, generally pyramidal structure that allow climbing plants to be grown within a bed rather than against a fence or wall.

Planting plan This is the planting design created by a designer which shows exactly what plants go where – have a look at our portfolio page for some examples.

Quoin The masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. The design of the wall can be such that these have an aesthetic as well as structural function.

Rectilinear A rectilinear design uses straight lines, with areas like lawns and patios generally made up of rectangles. The alternative is curvilinear which, you guessed it, uses more curved shapes.  

Structural plant These are plants that serve a structural function in the garden design, meaning they are generally trees or large shrubs. Designers will work out the structural planting as part of the concept, with the rest of the planting design coming later.

TPO A Tree Protection Order is an order made by a local planning authority in England to protect trees, and restricts what work can be done on a tree without planning permission. More information can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Unity Another garden design principle which is often hand in hand with cohesion and harmony. Unity means that all the parts of a garden ‘go’ and nothing looks out of place.

Vulgaris Quite frequently occurs as the second part of a plant’s Latin/scientific name, for example Syringa vulgaris (Lilac) and Prunella vulgaris (selfheal). Vulgaris means ‘common’.

Windbreak A semi-permeable barrier that reduces wind speed to help provide shelter. Windbreaks can be trees, hedges or man-made. They shouldn’t be completely solid as this can cause the wind to form eddies on the other side of the structure.  

Xylem Admittedly I’ve had to resort for a general horticulture word for X! Xylem is the tissue in plants that transports water and minerals from the roots up to the rest of the plant.

Years (three) This is how long you’ll probably have to wait for your new garden to really settle in and start to look established. Obviously a young tree will take much longer than this to reach maturity but after three years the herbaceous perennials should be reaching full size.

Zone Creating different zones in a garden means it can serve multiple functions and make the experience of exploring it more exciting.